Choral Singing in the Clouds: Internet Resources

Antoni Miralpeix Bosch, teacher, composer and conductor

Music in the Air

The reach and influence of the virtual world now affects the real world. The internet and digital technology have invaded daily life, and have a similar transformative role as the invention of the printing press in the 15^th century, which brought with it a radical democratization of the transmission of knowledge. We are experiencing a revolution of incalculable dimensions, a paradigm shift that is just beginning, and the internet is at its epicenter.  Since its beginnings the net has evolved, and we are now in Web 2.0, which, according to Adell (2010), includes an increase in bandwidth to permit the flow of information, and an explosion in the quantity of information uploaded by users via YouTube, Blogger, WorldPress etc. Using these tools, users engage systems to communicate and interact among themselves.

Application software and documents now reside ‘in the clouds’ (Cloud computing, iCloud etc.) which is to say on the net. This signals the end of the concept of software and applications as products, and the beginning of the concept of software as a service, available at any time and place through a variety of devices. Users can easily become creators of content, and collective intelligence blooms through the participation of system builders.

Music at Any Time and Place

Late generation mobile devices like tablets and smartphones facilitate access to information and communication in any time and place in an easy and attractive manner, revolutionizing the ways in which music is heard, created, written, learned, and taught. The most recent creations of Steve Jobs, such as “the IPhone, IPod, and IPad will be remembered for their capacity to radically transform the way we work and enjoy leisure time.” (Beahm 2011) Touch screen tablets enable us to surf the web, listen to music, read magazines and newspapers, edit sound, record video, see pictures and scores, communicate via email, play games, watch television, and participate in videoconferences, all on a single device. The compact size and light weight, expanded battery power that makes cables unnecessary, and ability to enlarge or reduce the size of text or scores make these devices a phenomenal tool for a choir director or teacher of music.

Verbs and Nouns

According to Marc Prensky (2011:64), verbs are the “skills that students must learn, refine and control.” Teaching has to do with verbs, which do not change over time: thinking critically, communicating, decision-making, comprehending content, etc… Nouns are “the tools which students use to practice the verbs,” including traditional resources such as books, song collections etc.. and digital tools that are unique to the 21^st century such as Google, Wikipedia, IPad etc … The nouns are a means to an end, and unlike verbs are constantly changing at a faster and faster pace. In our training we can then focus on the verbs, and put them to use with varying nouns, which change with time. With this idea in mind, below I list twenty verbs that can be useful for choir directors and that I consider fundamental, with their corresponding nouns representing digital technology. It is an open-ended list, open to change and improvements. All the nouns have a common denominator: they are free (or very inexpensive), easy to find and use, and above all, useful.

CODA

Thanks to the internet and current technology, choirs have at their service a variety of learning and communication tools that support their work. I believe we must have a presence on the web to facilitate communication between singers and directors, a meeting place, either a website or a blog, where we can share experiences, texts, images, videos, schedules, and have forums for conversation and rehearsal aids. We can keep our archives in the clouds in order to use them where and when we want. This is ultimately a window to the real world.

* alternative to Grooveshark: http://comparitech.net/limewire-grooveshark-alternative

Translated from Spanish by Joshua Habermann, U.S.A.

Edited by Gillian Forlivesi Heywood, Italy